Aussie kids go Back to School – facts and stats from the ABS

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In 2015-16, households in Australia spent 3.1% of their weekly expenditure on education and it's growing quickly (from 2.5% in 2009-10). Most of this expenditure was for school education (2.1%) and the rest was for tertiary and vocational education (1.0%). Source: ABS Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Summary of Results, 2015-16 (cat. no. 6530.0).

There were around 331,000 children aged 4-5 years enrolled in a preschool program in Australia in 2016. Source: ABS Preschool Education, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4240.0). New data will be released in mid-February.

There were around 3,798,000 people enrolled in school in 2016 (about 65% at Government schools). There were also about 309,000 teaching staff, 14,000 specialist support staff, and 157,000 other staff. Source: ABS Schools, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4221.0).

What happens next when students finish school? ABS data shows 59% of school leavers from 2016 were enrolled in further study in May 2017; about half of those enrolled in further study were also employed in May 2017. Source: ABS Education and Work, Australia, May 2017 (cat. no. 6227.0).

We've also done our homework and found in 2016 about 179,000 people aged 15-24 were enrolled in a technical or further education institution (such as a TAFE), while roughly 684,000 were enrolled in a University or other Tertiary institution. Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2016.